Friends Week in DC

“Friends Week” began when Marjo van Patten, my friend from childhood who lives in Ohio, expressed a desire to see the American Indian Museum and the African American Museum in DC. She knows how to get me excited! I had already been planning to spend time with my Rice friend Elizabeth Lodal, who lives in the District and is regaining her health after a serious challenge. Steve’s 11-day golf trip to England offered a perfect opportunity to see both friends and maybe others, too. Here we are at lunch on Sunday, September 24, ready for a week of adventures.

Marjo and I had arrived separately on Saturday morning, September 23, along with Hurricane Ophelia and lots of rain. We spent a pleasurable afternoon at the National Museum of the American Indian. For photos click here. Saturday evening Carol Starr picked us up for a lovely paella dinner at Del Mar, a Spanish restaurant on the busy DC Wharf. Carol had treated me to many treasures last May; I wanted to celebrate her upcoming birthday early since she would soon depart on a leaf-peeping trip to Vermont.

Before Sunday’s lunch Marjo, Elizabeth and I attended an elaborate worship service that marked the 116th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington National Cathedral. Marjo, an ardent Episcopalian, helped us make sense of all the incense and processions. Near where we sat were the Now and Forever Windows that Elizabeth had seen dedicated the day before. These windows replaced windows honoring Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, which were donated by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1953. Those old windows are now in the custody of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; the new ones proclaim “Fairness.”

Amy Mahoney, my friend since she and Shelby graduated from Emory University in 2000, joined us Sunday afternoon at Planet Word. We found a great place to hear poetry, practice languages, decode messages and purchase postcards like these for our pun-loving friends:

After a couple of hours of pondering the power of words, we taxied to Elizabeth’s place to relax. Her condo at Cathedral Commons overlooks a large terrace where fresh vegetables are grown and distributed to residents. It’s a lovely place to hang out with neighbors of all ages.

CREATIVITY was the watchword for Sunday dinner with Elizabeth’s daughter Kirsten and her family, who live on Cathedral Avenue. Husband Jeff created tasty roasted chicken and potatoes and exciting salads. Their three daughters cleared the dining table of several ongoing creative projects and helped set eight places. What a delight to see this loving, creative family in action!

Kirsten showed us a kitchen towel that proclaimed “Creative Clutter is better than Idle Neatness.” When I saw what these girls had produced from their books and art supplies, I  could only agree and applaud.

The next morning we three friends met at the East Building of the National Gallery of Art when it opened  and headed straight to the roof to see the blue rooster and enjoy the view of the Capitol. Why the Rooster? German artist Katharina Fritsch (born in 1956) said this about her 2013 sculpture: “It’s about male posing, about showing power.” It now overlooks a city famous for its memorials to notable men.

Indoors we studied works by Alexander Calder and a special exhibition of Contemporary Art by Native Americans, which complemented what Marjo and I had seen on Saturday afternoon at the Museum of the American Indian.  Here we are in front of the waterfall between the East and West Wings of the National Gallery.

After lunch in the West Wing of the Gallery, Elizabeth dropped Marjo and me at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a place I had  written about it in 2020 and 2017. It was Yom Kippur holiday for local schools; the museum was crowded, particularly in the lower levels that display the Middle Passage, Civil War and Reconstruction. I found more joy in the top floors that celebrate art, music and sports. Here’s a magnificent piece of fibre art based on Harriet Tubman by Bisa Butler, but we couldn’t find any mention of Scott Joplin!

Tuesday began with a visit to Lincoln’s Cottage in a part of the District I had never seen. I had read about it in Jon Meacham’s And There Was Light: a Biography of Abraham Lincoln. At the Cottage, near the Old Soldier’s Home, we met Arlington friends Anne and Tony Tambasco and Joanne and Powell Hutton. We learned that from 1850 to 1880 U.S. Presidents spent their summers there rather than in the un-airconditioned White House. Thus, Lincoln spent about 25% of his time in office there with Mary and their youngest son Tad. And it was there that he pondered and wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.

Powell and Joanne are long-time friends; their daughter Cecily studied piano with me and Joanne and I were in the same book group. Powell proved himself a valued driver. From Lincoln’s Cottage in Upper Northwest DC, he drove Elizabeth, Marjo, Joanne and me all the way to Southeast DC. Pressed for time, we stopped for pizza and ate lunch in the car. We got to Frederick Douglass’ House in time for a 1:15 pm tour. We climbed 87 steps (well, the smart ones took a winding ramp) from the parking lot to Douglass’s home on the fourth highest hill in the District. After reading David Blight’s Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom, I felt right at home. Unlike Lincoln’s Cottage, this site is beautifully managed by the National Park Service. We had a world-class guide and enjoyed a good film and an excellent gift shop. It was a memorable visit. The Huttons then delivered us back to our Holiday Inn for a much-needed rest.

Tuesday’s plan was to begin and end with Lincoln. Our final destination was a play at Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated. The box seats that he and Mary occupied are still draped with flags. But first Elizabeth treated us to a wonderful dinner downtown at Jaleo’s. Unfortunately, on the way to the theater, Elizabeth took a fall. A broken wrist curtailed her participation in the rest of Friends Week. She would have loved seeing Something Moving: a Meditation on Maynard at Ford’s Theater. Maynard Jackson was Mayor of Atlanta for three terms beginning in 1973. Here are excerpts from the September 29th Washington Post review of  this world-premiere production, titled “Maynard Jackson’s Galvanizing Moment”:

Writer Pearl Cleage imagined the play as a dramatized discourse in which average citizens revisit a more positive political era.”I was interested” Cleage says, “in creating some fictional characters who could speak in a way that would make people watching remember what it felt like to be at a transitional moment, when people actually had a different kind of faith in politics.” Overseen by the Witness, an emcee partially inspired by the Stage Manager in “Our Town,” “Something Moving” begins with nine citizens gathering for their first rehearsal. As specified in the script, those characters range in age from 20 to 60 and represent Black, Jewish, Asian American, European American, Latina and Indigenous identities.

While Cleage says each of her previous plays called for an all-Black cast, the nature of Jackson’s impact necessitated a broader approach. In the Witness’s words, “The idea is that the collective voice leads to the only true history.” The dialogue covers Jackson’s elections and touches on his successes in creating opportunities for Black businesses and bringing the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta, but it doesn’t shy from the 1977 sanitation strike, the Atlanta child murders and other dark times in his tenure.  Cleage, 74, served as Jackson’s press secretary. “You know, I’ve waited 50 years to write this play,” she says, “I knew I could get it right.”

Cleage did get it right, I’m convinced. Now if our country could come up with a National Galvanizer! Planet Word would highlight that as someone who brings us together!

On Wednesday Marjo and I shifted our focus from Lincoln to Marjorie Merriweather Post and her Hillwood Estate. This photo shows her exquisite pietra dura table. which can seat 30 people with leaves added. It weighs six tons, requiring the floor to be reinforced. On top of it are the lovely silver and glassware that Marjorie used to entertain her important guests. Marjo had read Alison Pataki’s book, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, and I had written about her Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago. A special exhibit on the Glass and the Fabergé eggs in Post’s collection Inspired Marjo to buy me some special earrings in the gift shop. This album shows some of what we saw in the hours before and after the delicious lunch we had at the Merriweather Cafe.

Marjo elected to return to the Holiday Inn that afternoon, but I pushed on to Lincoln Park, which was part of Pierre L’Enfant’s original design for the District of Columbia. I had never been there, nor had I seen the two famous memorials there. I had read about the Emancipation Memorial in Blight’s biography of Frederick Douglass. Douglass spoke at the dedication of this memorial in 1876 to a crowd of more than 20,000 people. On the other side of the park is the memorial to Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach FL. Her memorial was erected in 1974 by the National Council of Negro Women, whose President was Dorothy Height. That day I had the opportunity to contemplate three strong women–Marjorie Post, Mary Bethune, and Dorothy Height. Their backgrounds contrasted sharply; their legacies are lasting.

It was wonderful to see this memorial on a sunny day with children of all colors playing in this large park. I especially liked the inscriptions on the other four sides of the base of this statue:

I leave you love…I leave you hope…

I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another

I leave you a thirst for education

I leave you finally a responsibility to our young people.

Wednesday night Richard Darilek, a Rice friend whom I have seen at several reunions, invited us to have dinner with him and his friend Char at the Cosmos Club on Massachusetts Avenue. The club was founded by John Wesley Powell, the Grand Canyon explorer whose book we read each night when our family rafted through the Canyon with kinfolks in 1989.  On the Club’s walls were pictures of members who had won Nobel prizes, Medals of Honor or other awards. In one group I recognized Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Ambassador to the United Nations in the Reagan Administrations; S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; and historian John Hope Franklin. We found lots to talk about! Thank you, Richard and Char, for your gracious hospitality and such delightful conversation at this remarkable place.

On Thursday, our last day in DC, Amy Mahoney joined us at the Phillips Collection, a private museum I have enjoyed visiting since 1968. I especially love taking friends to see Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. While we waited for the Phillips to open, Marjo took Amy down the block to see a statue of Mahatma Ghandi and I offered the ticket I had for Elizabeth to a man who was also waiting. Patrick DeGorce from Geneva turned out to be a remarkable connoisseur! First he took us to the Rothko Room and engaged us in about 12 minutes of the silent meditation he said Rothko recommended. Then after we discussed what we saw, he accompanied us to the Boating Party and other  works. Docent Cinema Wood noted his astute comments and engaged Patrick and the three of us in fascinating discussions of several paintings. It’s not just because I was born in Phillips Texas that I always return to the Phillips Collection!

After treating us to lunch, Patrick departed for a meeting. We returned to the galleries to make sure we had seen everything, then took a cab to Dumbarton Oaks. But alas, my favorite garden was unexpectedly closed! Instead, we strolled through Montrose Park, where Lilli and Courtney played as tots and walked a few blocks through Georgetown before bidding Amy farewell. My next treat was for my friend Sharon to drive in from Alexandria to discuss piano duets, jazz studies, and favorite books for an hour.

Thursday evening we had dinner at the KC Cafe at the Kennedy Center and saw a new immersive exhibit on the top floor about the Kennedy Administration bringing a new level of art and culture to DC. Steve and I were at Rice when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas; the Kennedy Center opened in 1971 when our home in Arlington was only 12 minutes away.

Finally on Thursday, September 28th, we heard the National Symphony Orchestra in their first subscription concert of the season. It was an all-Rachmaninoff program featuring pianist Denis Kozhukhin playing Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 4, which I had never heard. He was fantastic and earned a long standing ovation that produced an encore. At intermission we called to tell Elizabeth what she was missing, but at least she’s local and can hear the NSO another time. The last number was The Bells, Op. 35 with the 120-member Choral Arts Society of Washington. Outstanding music was the perfect way to conclude our Friends Week. I was left with a heart full of love for lifelong friends and for our nation’s capital.